Diatemaceous Earth

Sick Plants & Problems
#21

No, days not weeks.

DE requires an awful lot of labor in order to maximize it’s bug killing potential.
As mentioned above, it is only piercing and shredding the exoskeletons of insects when it is dry.

Outdoors I have only used it with a puffer which I puff on aphids or other destructive insects on the plants. I do it at least once a day when it is dry out, until under control.
Indoors, I always re apply the DE (with a salt shaker of DE) as soon as the surface of the container is dry enough to not make the DE soggy. Just a little sprinkle of it ASAP after watering.

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#22

Wow! See it is such a huge area that is probably impossible to keep up. I see malathion in my future unfortunately. There are so many of them if I wanted to trap them I would probably need like 20 traps. That’s crazy amounts of work as well. Sucks. Plus, I don’t even know where I would get 20 cans all at once to fill and bury. I suppose I can hit at all angles. Go to 99 cent store and buy cans of peaches or something I can dump out, set traps and throw down some DE.

#23

It’s not that difficult. Just learn the life cycle of target insects and apply DE in the path of life cycle.

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#24

If it is micronized you can spray it also … :sunglasses:

"To use the pulverizing diatomaceous earth, what we will spray the plant well, ensuring that sensitive areas of pest attack we are trying, are well coated with liquid diatomaceous earth that we are applying. Also we will deposit around the plant, at its base, so that soil pests, such as caterpillars and slugs or snails, can not approach them. The amounts depend on the pest to be treated and the stage of the pest, if an incipient plague or well advanced pest, or if it is a plague of thrips or plague of slugs .

For pest control lawn , it is best to spray the diatomaceous earth on the same routine every watering (understanding that watered early in the morning or late afternoon). Land of micronized diatom be fixed to the grass when water evaporates and prevent proliferation of any insect (flies, mosquitoes, ants, etc …), parasite (fleas, ticks, etc …) or mollusk (snails, slugs, etc …) unwanted in our garden.

When pulverize with diatomaceous earth micronized our culture, we are, at the same time protecting it in the warm periods of heatstroke that besides damaging the fruit, they generate a very high stress on the plant or tree of our culture. Diatomaceous earth pulverized when dry and water is evaporated leaves a thin layer of white on the surface of the floor covering this a powerful reflective, which also protect against heat from a sun stroke, also it will hide the fruits like olives parasites such as olive fly , thus preventing pests such as this occur."

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#25

Okay, so I don’t know the amount of area @GrapeApe had to cover spreading his DE, but that was a lot of work. I just had to poof 700 sq ft. In which the stuff is food grade, looks like powdered sugar. Don’t even know how much I was supposed to apply. You can’t really see it out there, but I poofed damn near everything. Also set some traps, buried 6 cans of pineapple I threw out cuz I’m allergic to it and filled with oil and soy sauce. There is always a breeze here however light today, so I don’t know if it just blew off or not. Side note, it was 75 degrees out there in long pants, long sleeves a mask, gloves and eyewear. Like a sauna

I’m gonna try making a slurry and running it through the hose end sprayer next watering and see how that works. If more of my plants disappear, I’m going for harsh chemicals. At this point I wish I could hire a crop duster to dump on my backyard. It’s a plague I’m assuming it’s micronized @George cuz it was a powder sugar like powder

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#26

We put so much thought into breathing it we forgot to mention… It has no negative effects on skin contact.

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#27

There is more,the finer the powder the more effective it is. The best quality will cut less and dry out targets faster.
As for health the case studies I’ve seen on animals says it take two years of breathing in daily to show harm. No harm shown until a full second year. Buyer be ware topic for me.
Large particles are said to leave lung tissue fairly fast,while smaller particles are said to take longer to leave tissue.

In outside garden your mites will most likely be placed their by ants or some other ants. The worms will most likely come from moth or flying things that are placed in soil.

The secret will be most of the larvae will hatch on leaf then fall to ground then climb back up the plant when they get older. Those terrible worms probly hatch out of soil and climb the plant.

This makes me believe that my defense would be strongest at the bottom half of plant. Then lighter at the top or where product is produced. I do use calcium nitrate,magnesium sulfate and quality nutes on my vegetables.

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#28

Oh now, he tells me! bwahahaha

I bought the most expensive one they had lol It just says 100% DE food grade. I don’t always go for the most expensive anything, but I figured that there had to be a reason why there was such a price difference and I’m literally losing my shit over these earwigs.Hope it’s a good one.

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#29

There has to be an easier way to apply it when you do it dry to a large area. That poof thing was kind of ridiculous for my purpose. I almost thought sticking my hand in there with latex gloves then dusting my hands off onto stuff may be easier. Not sure if I would use too much that way. Still not clear as to proportions as the bag had zero instructions on it. May just need to go the early afternoon slurry hose sprayer direction, however I would have to figure out the right mixture and how many ounces per gallon. As it probably takes about 30 gallons of water to hit my whole yard if I’m doing the grass too.

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#30

Can’t remember the name but its looks like bicycle pump with a round tube on the end that you fill with DE. You really going to be pissed after try to spray DE water a few hours.

We harsh on conditions here so organic is not an option. I go hard after viruses,bacteria and insects.

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#31

There is a product called gnat gnix it works in the same way but comes attached to a perilite so you can layer it on top of you medium. It works a lot better for crawlers than just de. If you layer it on top of cloth pots you have an impenetrable growing medium. I have dusted de before the cheap way. Get a generic ketchup/condiment bottle and fill it half way with de. You squeeze the bottle gently and the de will fly through the air in a little cloud covering the plants :+1:

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#32

Also heard an old wives tale that if you coat the bottom stem of your plants the bugs will not crawl up and move on to other targets. I’ve been using grandevo for most pests cause my neighbors raise bee’s and I live near a river so spinosaid is out of the question cause it hits amphibians hard.

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#33

This is a good topic…
Does anyone know if this stuff could negatively effect worms in a live bed? Or might it benefit them? I would think they would help them in some way…
I have used it with great success, with Sticky traps. It works great at holding back the Fungus Gnats.

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#34

I would think bad for earthworms, centipedes and pillbugs.

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#35

Just one other thing on the health safety side, keep it out of your eye’s, it will shred the surface of your corneas. It’s like getting bad dry eyes x 100 or arc eye from welding without goggles.
.

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#36

Not much to find on info regarding this…But I did see this : https://permies.com/t/42579/diatomaceous-earth-bad-composting-worms …

I guess it makes sense? But it still seems like it could be uncomfortable on them. I will continue to keep looking.

Regards Olbrannon,

K.

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#37

thx. two reports that de is not a problem for earthworms or red wigglers

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#38

Haha…I still don’t fully trust it…

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#39

We have a Horned Worm,very vivid in color. Only thing that works is hand to hand combat. I cut them in half with a razor knife and leave them laying for their buddies to see.

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#40

Those are a big tomato pest right?